Police in Nanaimo are warning the public about a rental scam on Craigslist that was used in an attempt to rent a Nanaimo home.
The Nanaimo RCMP were contacted last Friday by a Nanaimo couple who told investigators they’d responded to a Craigslist ad on April 9, which advertised a home on Tamara Drive, available to rent for $1,800.
Within 30 minutes of responding to the ad, the couple received an application by e-mail from a man who identified himself as Terry White with the e-mail address Terrywhite80099@gmail.com. After several e-mails back and forth, the couple were approved. The final step for them was to send one month’s rent and damage deposit, at which point White would mail a house key to them.
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The couple found this quite strange, so they did their due diligence and managed to track down the actual owner of the home who verified the house was currently on the market, but it was for sale, not for rent. The owner also did not know who Terry White was. At this point, all communication with White was broken off and they reported the incident to police.
“Scammers often use Craiglist and other similar platforms to push their scams,” said Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman. “This couple was not going to be fooled and one Google search and a phone call was enough for them to see it was a Scam.”
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